County has poor record on Traveller accommodation

County Wexford has one of the worst track records in the country when it comes to the provision of suitable accommodation for Travellers.

Jacinta Stack, spokesperson for the Irish Traveller Movement, said the accomodation situation for Travellers in Wexford had not improved over the 16 years up to 2013.

'In the context of the delivery of programmes up to 2013, an audit across the country showed that Wexford was one of 24 local authorities which had failed to deliver on their targets. Wexford had a 47 per cent shortfall,' she said.

Wexford, she said, had a higher than normal number of Travellers in private rented accommodation, one of the highest shortfalls and was one of four counties which had large numbers of Travellers contacting the Irish Traveller Movement for support.

'I'm reluctant to criticise the council. The figures speak for themselves.'

She said the whole way Traveller accomodation was dealt with needed to be restructured and taken out of the hands of local politicians and handed to the government to be delivered by an independent national agency, which was not influenced by political considerations.

The county council provided 64 out of a planned 115 housing units for Travellers between 2009 and 2013.